Are OC's Spray Haters Spreading Out to LA County?

Los Angeles County investigators aren't drawing a connection between the hateful graffiti sprayed on two churches over the past weekend and recent incidents in Orange County, but don't let that stop us from doing so.

Why? Because the cases sound so similar--and the targeted houses of worship are all mere freeway drives from one another.

The most recent signs of something beastly were found on churches in Rolling Hills Estates and Rowland Heights, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Spray hate directed at races and religions--with a special shout out to the devil--was discovered around 6 a.m. Saturday on a wall outside the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 19111 Killian Ave., Rowland Heights. A sheriff's official estimated damage at about $500.

"Kill CATHLick's" was also discovered painted in large black letters that day on a walkway next to the parking lot at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish on Market Place in Irvine.

The same day, racist and threatening remarks directed at Asian Americans and African-Americans was found scrawled outside the Orange County Housing Authority, 1170 N. Broadway, Santa Ana; farther up Broadway in the 1700 block; on the Chase Bank on North Euclid Avenue in Anaheim; and the Furnish 123 store on East La Palma Avenue in Anaheim.

Asians and African-Americans were also threatened with death in black-painted hate speech found early Jan. 14 on a sidewalk in front of Pier 1 Imports and on the walls of the Sears Outlet at the Brea Union Plaza on East Imperial Highway.

It's unclear whether it's related, but two weeks ago, "We Gonna Kill Gov Brown 02142011" appeared on a wall along Greenville Street just north of Alton Street in Santa Ana, and "26 More Days [Swastika Sign] 4 Brown" was discovered near Thornton Park in Santa Ana.

The head of a baby Jesus stolen from a nativity scene was found Jan. 21 next to a trash bin at the Mission Basilica in San Juan Capistrano. The Reverend Arthur Holquin at first suspected pranksters, but given the recent hate directed at Catholics, the Monsignor decided to contact the sheriff's office.

Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before "graduating" to OC Weekly in 1995 as the paper's first calendar editor. He has contributed as a freelance editor and writer to several publications and been the subject of or featured in several reports online, in print and on the radio and television. One of countless times he returned to his Costa Mesa, CA, home with a bounty of awards from a journalism competition, his wife told him to take out the trash.